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Yes it is possible. Rabbit Ears have been doing it for the last 30 years.

A lot depends on your circumstances,how far are you from the broadcast towers, are they VHF or UHF channels, what quality indoor antenna are you looking at using? Construction of the home makes a difference steel or concrete have more resistance to radio waves passing through than wood or glass.

He might be talking about one of the converter tuner boxes. Yes, I know calling it an "antenna" is incorrect but it does help tune local channels and subchannels on TV sets that were not designed for ATSC OTA reception (digital television).

OTA Locals integrated into the guide and no worries if a local is dropped. They do take away the guide data for dropped locals, but If they drop my Baltimore locals, I still will get guide data and good signals from the DC locals.

He says he has no antenna. This works as antenna and brings in the local stations including the sub channels.

If I read your original post right, you're not asking about using a Dish receiver for a tuner, but rather the TV's internal tuner. The "box" you refer to is probably an indoor antenna.

Depending on your distance to the transmitting tower, your elevation, and obstacles that may be between you and the transmitter, it is possible to receive television signals with no subscription. Typically, this will include ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and PBS in HD. If the stations multicast (broadcast more than one virtual channel on one physical channel), then it is also possible to receive all sub channels as well.

I would search Amazon for a Leaf Paper-Thin Antenna and try one out. If it doesn't work for you, you're out a few bucks return shipping.

Actually, you should go to antennaweb.com or tvfool.com. They will give you an idea of what kind of antenna you need to get the stations you want.

Also, I would assume that the OP would want to integrate OTA with his Dish receiver. It would allow him to record OTA on his DVR and seamlessly switch between OTA and satellite.

If you have a 722, there is already an OTA tuner included, you just need to plug in an antenna. If you have a 722k, see the link in my post above to the OTA module. If you have the Hopper, there is a USB dongle that you can buy to add OTA.